Gather children, I would like to tell you the story of my discovery of how easy it is to bake biscotti and/or mandel bread. It was a Sunday after the girlfriend had stayed over all weekend. Say hi to the girlfriend:
This is basically what every day was like when we worked together. They said we were annoying, but we knew they didn’t mean it.
To relieve myself of the depression of her returning to the dark depths of Jersey, I had to bake. I needed something I could make with whatever I had in the house, and would stay stable until the next morning to bring to work. Searching around Tasty Kitchen, I came across something so very surprising–another person with knowledge on Jewish cooking on the website! (I should comment on this remark with the understanding that most of Tasty Kitchen are southern and midwestern dishes, so it’s exciting to find someone else who breaks that mold.) She suggested Bubbie Ruth’s Mandel Bread and I readily obliged. Mandel Bread is a softer, Jewish version of biscotti.
But alas fair readers, I was afraid. Something about baking biscotti has always scared me–that delectable crust with a crunchy, yet flaky texture could not be so easy. Give in to temptation with me…
Ingredients:
- 1 cup Vegetable Oil
- 1 cup Sugar
- 3 whole Eggs
- 1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
- 3 cups All-purpose Flour
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 1 cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
- Cinnamon Sugar
Mix together oil and sugar until combined,
and then add eggs one at a time.
After the eggs are combined, add vanilla.
Sift together all the dry ingredients and add them slowly to the sugar/egg mixture.
Once the dough is smooth and sticky, pour the chocolate chips in and mix. Put the dough in the refrigerator for a few hours (at least 2) or overnight.
Lightly oil your hands and form 4-5 long rows with the dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet (I should have totally taken a picture of this and I would apologize, but it would have been a bad picture anyway, let’s just be honest). Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Take the mandel bread out and turn the oven down to 250 degrees.
Slice the mandel bread into biscotti-sized pieces and carefully roll each one into the cinn/sugar mixture. Put the pieces back on the cookie sheet, on their sides, and bake for another 15 minutes at 250 degrees.
I thought this was a pretty classic biscotti/mandel bread set up for a picture. I’m relatively proud of myself.
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